INTERVIEW #5: FEATURING EVELYN PIZARRO

April 6, 2021 Buffalo Latino Village

This month I will be introducing Evelyn Pizarro, an educator who worked and retired from the Buffalo Public School system.

Evelyn Pizzaro is a Puerto Rican integrationist. She integrated the white schools of the Sicilian West Side in the 1960s. Evelyn’s parents achieved social mobility and bought a house. One of the three Latino families in the West Side. Buying a house allowed Evelyn the privilege and the responsibility of being one of the first Latina children to attend BPS 03. At the time attending, all the white schools were understood to be a privilege because all white schools were better. While Evelyn’s parents were integrating the West Side, Puerto Ricans were fighting hard to access “better” for their children all over the country.

For the folks who like definitions, social mobility is defined as a change in social status relative to one’s current social location within a given society. In the West Side commonly referred to as “the come up.”

Mendez v. Westminster was filed in 1946 in California because Felicitas, a mother from Juncos Puerto Rico, was on the come up too. She refused to accept the fact that her 9yr old daughter Sylvia was denied access to their local white school. Felicitas was not backing down and took that case to the Supreme Court. Evelyn’s parents were not backing down either- part of the first 2000 Puerto Ricans to settle in Buffalo they both worked two jobs. Literally and physically working night and day to earn enough money to buy a house in a good neighborhood so Evelyn could go to school.

Latino sacrifices to access education have not always been well understood and or well documented. For that reason, history won’t tell you the Mendez case came before Brown v. Board of Education and that Sylvia was ½ Puerto Rican or that the case led to the integration of California schools. History will not tell you about Evelyn Pizzaro who integrated a school and returned as its Principal.

So simply we must rewrite history. In honor of the women like Sylvia and Evelyn. Who as girls were isolated, and not wanted inside their own school buildings and in response grew into women who out-worked and out achieved their peers? Evelyn’s grit remains today, she says in her interview:

“I was known as a toughie in the neighborhood. I wasn’t one that was intimated very quickly and that stayed with me as a student.”

Help us rewrite history and read Evelyn’s interview on my blog. Learn the true story of a trailblazer that fought for Latinas before she even knew it- every time she stepped into the classroom.

INTERVIEW WITH EVELYN PIZARRO

1.What was your experience like as a student?

I went to Buffalo public schools I graduated from BPS # 03 at Porter and Niagara – around 15 or so years later I came back and became the principal. You finished at school 03 and then you would go to Grover Cleveland High School. Back then there were neighborhood schools, so you went to school where you lived. At the time I went to school the West Side was a mostly Italian neighborhood and only a handful of Puerto Ricans lived there. My family lived around the block from the school. What was special about my family was that we were accepted by the Italians and we owned the house that we lived in.

2.Did you like school or learning?

I was the first Latino principal in the City of Buffalo because of my parents. “First of all, in my house, you never failed”. If you failed, you were going to get your ass kicked. My parents made it known that “You better come home with passing grades.” If any of the six of us failed any classes, you would have to spend the whole afternoon at the table. And then if not, you were reading out loud so my mother could hear you. My parents understood education was important. My parents came from Puerto Rico and they met in New York City. I was born in New York City, but my family moved to Buffalo when I was a baby. In those days, most Puerto Ricans only went to school until 08th grade because children were also working in the fields. During my parent’s time, If you got a high school diploma you were lucky. So, when my parents came to Buffalo, NY they worked hard. First, my father was working in the fields. Then our neighbor down the street got him a job driving a garbage truck in the morning. And then he got a job at the steel plant. He had a garbage truck in the morning and a steel plant job in the evening. Then we had enough money to buy a house. My mother worked at the cannery and sewed at home at night. There were only 3 Hispanics in the whole neighborhood when we bought our house. Little by little more people started to realize – if you can buy a house and you use your money to invest in your house you can make money.

3.What were your experiences like as a student and how did they inform your leadership?

I was considered a tough cookie. I did not take any abuse from anyone. When my friends had a problem with the Italians. I would go to them and take care of that problem. I would say “Why are you calling her a spick?” Or telling her that “we should be on the farm?” Then I would say “you give her a hard time again- I am going to kick your ass!” I was known as a toughie in the neighborhood. I was not one that was intimated very quickly and that stayed with me as a student. I studied here in Buffalo in the West Side. I went to D’Youville college in the West Side because they had bilingual courses. I then went to SUNY Buffalo State and earned a master’s degree in Elementary Education and one for early childhood too. During that time Jose and I worked at the college. We were responsible for recruiting students to college and for talking about college. When I went to graduate school Jose was at home with our two children watching them. I wanted to get a PhD., but I had to raise children.

4.When did you start your work as an educator and what was your role?

I was a teacher first I was working at BPS #12, there was a school that had a bilingual program #BPS 33- and I worked there as a teacher also. Being a teacher, I really enjoyed, it, you must teach the kids how to work hard and how to play hard. I would tell them “do your homework, and If you do not know something, ask someone for help. Do not wait until it is too late to figure it out. “We always had verity schools and bands to showcase culture. As a teacher, I was the kind of teacher that was with fair kids. I did not go out of my way to do things the way I wanted them. Some teachers are hard on the kids and go out of their way to make their kids miserable. At that time teaching there were mostly American teachers, and we had some ethnic groups – we had some Asian kids coming to buffalo – most of them lived on Grant Street. At times I witnessed some of the American teachers would treat the Asian kids unfairly because they did not know how to do things. I would tell them. “Just because your English is not 100% that doesn’t mean you’re stupid.” I would talk to the teachers and tell them the children were bright when they were making fun of kids because they had an accent. I was always saying “that child can speak in two languages.” “How many can you speak?” To get my point across. As a teacher I knew -You must treat children fairly. I was not going to treat them badly just because they did not meet a “so-called standard” that people said they had to meet. First, you could take the state exams and local exams in English and Spanish. Then they decided they would all be English and that made things harder for students.

5.What was your favorite and most informative role?

Principal – I became principal of P.S. 03 and I was the first Latina principal in the history of the city of Buffalo. Like I said most of the Puerto Ricans/Latinos who came here- came here with an 8th-grade education so when I was principal of BPS# 03 I ran a class for the parents. There was an annex on Normal and Rhode Island and right behind there was an extension of the building. My students’ parents were there taking classes. One of the most amazing things was when I saw my parents graduate with their GED. We graduated 8 parents – from BPS #03. To have the children see their parents achieve it showed the kids that if my parents had to do all that to catch up – I better get my diploma now. The Mayor at the time, Mayor Masiello – he would come and shake their hands when they graduated with their GED. We always had important people from the neighborhood and Mayor Masiello came all the way to our graduation. As principal, I always brought Latin bands to show our culture and to teach the children our culture is important. I always thought that bringing special guests teaches the children how to behave.

6.What Advice do you have for Educators today?

First, you are coming into a society and culture that is very mixed especially if you are going to work on the Westside. Educators today should be ready to embrace all the cultures and languages and the people and how they were raised and what have you.

I always fought for my kids. Sometimes I would need desks because there were too many kids and I went straight to the service center with my truck and got my desks.

You must work. You cannot be afraid of work. As a Principal, I would stay up countless hours after working a long day to apply for state grants and Mary taught me. Mary was my mentor and extremely helpful. People are afraid of paperwork but if you know how to apply you can have everything you want for your classroom. We had classes, in the late 1970s my parents had computers – we applied for them for the state – we had a little computer lab for the parents. I always fought for my kids because they went through a lot, especially in those days. I worried for them when they were at home. One time I was the principal at school 03 and I had to send a student home and I was really scared for him. I decided to send another student over to his house to do a welfare check shortly after school ended. I was so scared that the kid was beat-up that I sent another kid to the house to check if the kid was ok. I figured if the parents would allow the boy to be seen- he did not get beat up bad. But if the parents would not let the boy be seen or out of the room – then he got beat up. I remember I was waiting in my car for the report. I did not go home to my own kids because I was so scared that my student was going to get beat up bad by his parents. Our girls lived hard lives too, sometimes more than they could handle. I remember one time we had a girl that was in sixth grade who thought she was pregnant. Sometimes I would worry so bad I would go directly to the house. One time I nearly had to follow the kid home. I came just in time. I could hear the kid upstairs getting beat up by his father and screaming. I ran right up to their door- alone- screaming. “I know what’s going on and I’m not going to leave here until it stops, and the first thing I am going to do Monday morning is to check that kid from head to toe,” I remember staring at the stairs, waiting, just sitting in that hallway in the upper west side because I cared about my kids.

7.What is your theory on human potential?

People do not realize the potential they do have. Growing up I was not thinking that I would be a teacher or something like that. That is why I had to leave home early. I wanted to take courses and my parents wanted me to get married right after high school. And I said no I wanted to go to college and take classes. So, I left. I even participated in a beauty contest and won!

8.What is the most important thing a student taught you?

You must be fair with kids and you have balance in your interaction with them; you can’t play a game that his kid is better than that kid because this kid speaks English or because this kid did better on the state exam- kids know when you do that.